Saturday, October 18, 2008

We're opposed to reinstating the semi-auto assault weapons ban. There's a lot of confusion about this legislation. Most people believe an assault weapon is a full-auto. Those fully automatic guns are already regulated. The best way to deal with this issue is to make sure that criminals don't get guns in the first place.

Bush was wrong for supporting reinstating the ban in 2000 and 2004. McCain was wrong for voting for it back in 2004 (it was an amendment to S. 1805 for which McCain voted yes.) The NRA still endorsed both of them. We don't agree with the call for renewing the ban. Also, the Heller case should have settled this. What's important is that hunters and sportsmen will have a seat at the table when the Obama administration deals with guns.

"According to a 2003 Field & Stream National Hunting Survey, sportsmen overwhelmingly support reasonable gun safety proposals. Moreover, an overwhelming majority of hunters support proposals like background checks to purchase guns, keeping military style assault weapons off our streets and the elimination of cop killer bullets."

This position was defended in their (continued)inaccurate attacks against the NRA w/ the "Zumbo Myth" as late as the middle of last year.

Ray's Presser attacking the NRA (as if they do anything else) for supporting McCain states:

The NRA is holding Obama accountable for votes taken 10 years ago, but giving McCain a pass for his actions within the past 8 years.

A legitimate statement yet the AHSA is giving Obama a pass on votes and actions w/i the last five years, including opposing CCW, banning "assault weapons, voting for 3rd party lawsuits, supporting ammo bans, etc.

So does that mean that the AHSA has "demonstrated once again that it is a partisan political entity, not an organization committed to the best interests of gun owners."?

Friday, October 17, 2008

In a rare occurrence, NRA and the Brady Campaign (formerly Handgun Control, Incorporated) agree on something.

Four years ago, the Brady Campaign endorsed an anti-gun senator by the name of John Kerry for President, and NRA thought that decision made sense—for an anti-gun group.

This week, in a testament to his anti-gun record, Barack Obama also received a presidential endorsement from the Brady Campaign.

So, once again, the Brady Campaign and NRA are in total agreement—Barack Obama is, by far, the most anti-gun presidential nominee in history and he certainly deserves the endorsement of one of the most outspoken anti-gun organizations in the country.

The state established a 'universal health care plan' for children just seven months ago. Apparently they didn't really intend it to be 'universal' as they cancelled it after complaining people who previously had health care were signing their kids up for it.

"The NRA uses its questionnaire to rate and endorse candidates. But the guide reveals that the NRA"s questions are often based on incomplete or misleading assumptions, and candidates" answers therefore may reveal little about their actual views. "

-Another Brady Presser

As if they have any room to talk about 'misleading assumptions'.

What really stands out is they blatantly lie just a few sentences down:

The NRA opposed the Federal assault weapons ban, which limited ammunition magazines to 10 rounds. Now that the ban has expired, the sale of 30, 50, even more than 100 round magazines is legal again.

They were legal during the ban as well, there were just import and manufacture restrictions.

So they 'illuminate' the candidates and public by lying to them.

The 'report' is filled w/ this kind of nonsense. Referring to "Assault Weapons" as 'belonging on the battlefield', the old claim that CCW holders commit crimes more often than non-CCW holders using partial and incomplete statistics, claiming the NRA wants machineguns for everyone, etc.

It's funny that they talk about the BATFE's 'limited resources' when they have been critisized repeatedly for fraud, waste, and abuse, as well as spending millions in tax dollars to shut down dealers w/ minor paperwork infractions.

They've also picked up AHSA talking points"

it is worth noting that the NRA has overwhelmingly supported some of the biggest conservation opponents in Congress, and opposed many conservation supporters.

One would think that their goals were complementary or something.

And this is just after a cursory reading. Kaveman is going to have another Youtube video up if he tries to fisk this.

Section 27.42—FirearmsThe current regulation in Section27.42 generally prohibits visitors frompossessing an operable and loadedfirearm in a national wildlife refugeunless the firearm is used for lawfulhunting activities. Under the proposedamendment, an individual will be ableto possess, carry, and transportconcealed, loaded, and operablefirearms within a national wildliferefuge in the same manner, and to thesame extent, that a person may lawfullypossess, carry, and transport concealed,loaded and operable firearms in anystate wildlife refuge, or any functionallysimilar unit of state land, in the state inwhich the national wildlife refuge, orthat portion thereof, is located.Functionally similar state lands willinclude, but not be limited to Statewildlife management areas and stategame areas. Possession of concealedfirearms in national wildlife refuges asauthorized by this section must alsoconform to applicable federal laws.

I'm reading it that they support the idea that if it's legal in your state to carry in their parks, you can carry in the Federal parks in those states.

I lobbied Barack Obama extensively while he was an Illinois State Senator. As a result of that experience, I know Obama's attitudes toward guns and gun owners better than anyone. The truth be told, in all my years in the Capitol I have never met a legislator who harbors more contempt for the law-abiding firearm owner than does Barack Obama.

Felon robs store. Clerk shoots him while he's trying to get away so he'll probably be charged w/ something. As usual, the robber is a longtime petty criminal who was working on becoming MORE violent but was "reaching out to find his path in life." He was, but not in any legitimate field.

The Mayor gets it:

"Any time you point a gun at me and if I've got a gun and I've got the opportunity, I'm going to use it on you," Waukegan Mayor Richard Hyde said. "With society the way it is now and with the number of armed robberies you have, you've got to fight back."

If even one of these passes, it will be a monumental victory for Illinois firearm rights especially being the home state of anti-self defense advocate and presidential candidate Barack "basic civil rights, forget it" Obama.

First on their list is ISRA Preferred Candidate Rep. Dennis Reboletti in State House District 46. Why? Because he voted against HB 758, a bill making NICS checks mandatory for all handgun sales.

Here's the clincher. The reason the bill failed was because there's already a universal background check in IL in the form of the FOID card. It is illegal to sell or transfer a firearm to anyone w/o one. It is the responsibility of the Illinois State Police to maintain the records of who has one and who has lost eligibility.

Translation: If you have a FOID card, as far as the seller is concerned, you've passed a background check. If you don't have one, that's a crime on the seller and purchaser. If you have one and you are not eligible, you are committing a crime by taking the gun and the ISP have failed in their responsibility.

The Brady Campaign gave IL a higher score for having the FOID in the first place so this is a(nother) sideways admission they really don't care about crime and just want as many restrictions as they can manage to legal firearm ownership.

One wonders how much they'll be able to focus on other candidates due to their lack of funding or if this is their major push.

We should also have a little fun at Alderman Mell's expense for his support of this tactic. If you recall, Mell was the Alderman who wrote a personal exemption for the Chicago gun laws after he failed to re-register his own firearms.

War on Guns points to a Sun-Times article by 'journalist' Mary Mitchell where she calls for a Constitution Free Chicago. Barricades, road blocks, warrantless searches of homes and people, you know, your standard police state policies.

Sure Ms. Mitchell. Let's do that in Chicago and, like several commentors noted, the majority of those searched and arrested will be African American males between the ages of 18 and 32.

Guess what will happen then?

The Reverends Jackson and Sharpton will crawl out of their holes screaming 'RACISM' while marching through the streets with their bused in supporters. The families of those "honor students" and "good kids" will follow behind them telling every news reporter in sight how their baby would never do anything wrong. They were only going to the store for a gallon of milk when they were arrested w/ drugs and a gun at 2am will be the refrain.

So go ahead. Convince Daley that your plan will work and get it implemented. Then watch it collapse due to the actions of the very people that are being victimized by crime.

Monday, October 13, 2008

ACORN has been investigated for thousands of cases of registering people multiple times, under fake names, etc. While the state of Nevada may be partially at fault, this level of failure is beyond incompetence and sparks of the intentional. None of that matters on Huffpo however:

So, when one of the thousands of people they give jobs to doesn't do their work right and brings back bogus or phony voter registration cards...

The effect is that a few bad canvassers or a poorly run office will mean that bad cards are submitted as part of the normal process.

Sorry, when you have a fraud rate of well over 90% in multiple offices across multiple states, it's more than just 'a few bad apples' in 'one or two offices'. This is a deliberate move to skew numbers and commit voter fraud. But it's so much easier to whine "Faux News", "Florida", or "Repugs" than it is to look critically in the mirror.